If you weren’t one of the 12, 672 fans who enjoyed the fun atmosphere of the Cubs game at HoHoKam today, hopefully you at least were able to catch some of the game on WGN TV. Another perfect Arizona day, 74 degrees at first pitch, which saw the Cubs win their 3rd game in 4 attempts this spring, beating the San Francisco Giants 5 – 1.
Notable performances for the Cubs: Starting Pitcher Rich Hill threw a couple scoreless innings, giving up one hit. Scott Eyre had a very successful first outing, striking out 2 of the 3 batters he faced. Angel Pagan, who was in the Mets organization, helped his cause to make the ballclub in a crowded outfield, with a couple hits and two stolen bases today. The 24 year old Pagan has 163 minor league stolen bases. It was a very frightening moment when Giant’s starter Kevin Correia nailed Jerry Hairston in the head with a pitch that sent him straight to the ground. Hairston ended up being helped off the field, and was taken to Mesa Lutheran Hospital for observation. Felix Pie, Marquis Grissom, and Michael Restovich each hit a two-bagger. Mark Prior didn’t play in the game, but had another successful pitching session today.
The Giants played a split-squad with the other half of the team in Scottsdale playing the World Baseball Classic USA team. Team USA beat the Giants 11 – 7. In that game, the Cub’s Derrek Lee was 1 for 1 with a run scored, while Michael Barrett went 0 for 2.
Shawon Dunston (see pic), who has been helping out for about a week each of the past few springs, ended his Mesa stint by coaching part of the game at first base. In talking to Shawon today about his early spring training experiences, he mentioned that during his first spring training he was never subjected to any rookie pranks, he said “no, they never did that to me, I had a veteran team- they didn’t have time for that” When he became an established player, he did however enjoy being the one to dish it out. Dunston has over the years at spring training been a favorite of mine to videotape because of his fun, outgoing personality. At Fitch Park, in their playing days Dunston, Grace, and Sandberg seemed to have as much fun with their competitive contests as anyone I’ve seen. And during the years that Dwight Smith was with the team, sometimes the group became downright comical. Ah, memory lane.
Tomorrow the Cubs head to Phoenix to take on the Oakland Athletics.
~more later~
Shawon Dunston watches bp today.
No Comments